If you enter Marietta’s zip code into donorschoose.org at any given time, about a dozen projects seeking funding in Washington County schools, and in surrounding counties, are likely to pop up.
It’s a testament to how creative our local teachers are, how much they care and how much work ...

Only a few local communities — Bartlett, Cutler and McConnelsville — remain to hold their annual trick-or-treating; but parents likely are still faced with mounds of Halloween candy from events held over the weekend and last night.
To those who have not yet had a chance to do so, and to ...

Washington County’s Children Services Board says it was blindsided by the decision made last week by the Washington County Commissioners, who voted to merge county job and family services with children services and place fiscal and administrative oversight with the commission.
Board ...

Two of Marietta's communities had a laundry list of projects this year that weren't granted Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds—mostly because those funds only run so deep.
But while there were unfulfilled wish lists in both Norwood and Harmar, there seems to be much more ...

Taxpayers have come to expect that when local governments decide to construct new buildings, for virtually any purpose, the price tags will be well up into six — or seven — figures. It should have been a pleasant surprise to Monroe County residents, then, that the estimate for a new animal ...

Among the cultural shifts some believe have led to public health crises such as our region’s substance abuse epidemic and other “diseases of despair,” is the rise in isolation and loneliness. Fewer people feel as though they have a sense of being surrounded by a community. Fewer people ...

A recent proposal to Marietta City Council to consider putting a speed limit in place on the River Trail is worthy of consideration, but there are many questions to be answered first.
Do we think a speed limit is a good idea? Yes.
Is it practical? Maybe not.
Anyone who uses the trail has ...

Flu season is upon us, whether we like it or not. Students have had several weeks to circulate their germs and spread them back home — and the holidays are fast-approaching.
Protect yourself. Get a flu shot. There are very few circumstances in which avoiding the shot makes sense: Babies ...

First, the good news: The number of domestic-violence related deaths in Ohio went down last year — from 116 in fiscal 2016 to 91 in fiscal 2017.
Now, the bad news: There were still 91 domestic-violence related deaths in Ohio last year.
For domestic violence advocates it is an unfortunate ...

Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Special Investigations Department has done some difficult work this year to uncover more than $60 million in workers’ compensation fraud in the state.
In fact, there were 298 closed employer fraud cases with a savings of $8.7 million, 54 healthcare ...

The hearings are over, the confirmation complete, but there is still much we can learn from the weeks that followed the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
After the accusations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, the process became a political boxing match for which ...

“Journalism matters. NOW more than ever.”
For 78 years, National Newspaper Week has reminded readers each year of the value to our communities and our democracy in maintaining a vigorous free press. The theme for this year’s observances is focused on the challenges of the ...

Schools used to worry about reading, writing and arithmetic when it came to meeting students’ needs. Today, some schools are facing the problem of providing clothing and hygiene products, food, after-school care, some basic health care and mental health services to their students.
“If the ...

More than a few “cold case” crimes, some years old, have been solved by using DNA samples. Those taken from crime victims or scenes sometimes can be matched to DNA taken from previously arrested offenders.
That works only if information about previous offenders’ DNA is on file, ...

On Nov. 1, the Washington County Veterans Service Commission will hold its first Veterans Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The men and women in the first class of inductees displayed not only a willingness to serve their country in the military, but to continue serving upon their return to ...

There are only a handful of days left to register to vote in Ohio ahead of the Nov. 6 election. We hope those who haven’t already gone through the simple process will take a few minutes to do so and have their say in who will be making decisions in their county, state and country.
The ...

Some teachers and administrators made an important shift when they turned STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) into STEAM — the A stands for “arts.” Programs like Artsbridge, which brings classes, performances and demonstrations to local schools, show perfectly the ...

Ohioans already know they need to look out for the wellbeing of children; and the law caught up to that reality years ago. Requirements that many professionals, including teachers, report suspicions of abuse were the result.
But the elderly? Somehow they fell through the proverbial cracks. ...

Sometimes “fair” is not smart. A plan for distributing safety and security funds to Ohio public schools is an excellent example of that.
State officials plan to distribute $12 million that has been set aside to improve school security. A few days ago, the state attorney general’s office ...